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Last January I made a post about my Resolutions and you know what? I never looked back on them. Not once.

Until today.

And guess what?

I didn’t do half bad!

Get Health(ier) 2012 was definitely my year for this one – but it took some time. I spent about half of the year gaining back the 13lbs I lost while being pregnant (yup, if you didn’t read that post, I was down 13lbs within 72hours of giving birth) without even realizing it! In August I decided to get on a scale – we didn’t keep one in the house because I’ve struggled with an eating disorder since I was 15…and couldn’t handle it. Well, sure enough, I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight. It was depressing to say the least. BUT, I reminded myself that I had just finished breastfeeding for a whole year, and when you breastfeed you have to EAT. So it was okay. I started back on my gestational diabetes diet (with some modifications) and by November I was pretty much back to post pregnancy weight. I was running often and loving it. And then I started getting sick. Two months of being sick at the end of the year, including multiple gallstone attacks and a surgery. I ended up losing 6 more lbs in the last few weeks with some additional diet changes. So although I haven’t been able to run for a month, and I’m still working on weaning back into normal foods – I feel that I did really good on this one.

Work on myself This one is hard because I never really tried to accomplish it. Yet, today, I definitely feel I did. Throughout 2012 I thought long and hard about myself, focusing a lot of strength on my career. What resulted was an application to grad school. Something I thought I would NEVER do. The realization that I wanted to go back to school was huge, and made me feel like I had a purpose again. I also spent a lot of time reflecting on being a mother, and today I feel more fulfilled, more happy, more lively than I ever did before. So, I didn’t necessarily work on myself, but I learned a lot about making myself happy this year. It’s been a good year.

Get things on the wall Well…Flop. In fact, we have less on the wall today than we did in January. With a good excuse! In November we had our entire house repainted, and well, with being sick for two months, I haven’t put anything back up! But we did fill frames with family pictures and Ariadne pictures. Plus I made that cool print for over Ariadne’s crib. There was more on the walls!

Double our savings FLOOOOOP! For a good reason though! We started throwing our extra money at debt instead, and that’s never a bad thing. In addition, we made a lot of BIG expenditures this year. Lots of trips and painting the house etc. I feel pretty good about this.

To not spend the year panicking about 2012 Hmm…well…I DID spend a lot of time dealing with my anxiety issues. The good news is, I got some great advice on a coping mechanism and after working on it for awhile, it started working. So my “end of the world” anxiety was definitely much more controlled than I expected. Then I made it through the 21st without a panic attack. Success!

All in all, 2012 was an amazing year. I totally feel like we accomplished a lot in 12 months. My life is more fulfilling than ever, and I truly look forward to everything that is in store for me/us!

So there you have it. A year of successful resolutions! I haven’t decided if I’ll be making a new list for 2013. I may, but I’ll decide tomorrow 🙂

Truly, I have a bag full of valid excuses for my lateness as well as my absence – some of which include, being perpetually sick with everything from the worlds worst cold EVER, pink eye, the flu (WHY?) for the better part of two months now, having surgery to remove my annoying gallbladder, preparing to start grad school next month…and whole bunch of “I just don’t feel like blogging” excuses. I can’t promise this will start a trend, because it probably won’t. I’m about 90% sure I’m done with regular blogging, unless my life gets back under some realm of normalcy soon.

Anyways, on to the awesome little girl we have on her way to TWO!

Toddler Ariadne is the best.

The majority of the time she is so awesome that it leaves me wondering how we got so fortunate.

Our little girl has always been a little bit more reserved than the other kids she’s around. Not to say she doesn’t love socializing, because she lights up when other kids come around, and will charm the socks off any adult. But, she’s still quiet…reserved….you know. I love this about her. It always makes me wonder what she’s thinking, because she always looks so thoughtful.

She loves to draw or “craw craw craw” as we hear eleventy billion times a day. For Christmas, Santa brought her a little table and chair set that she’s been thoroughly enjoying climbing on so that she can draw with all of the new drawing items Nana purchased. Our fridge is already full of artwork.

The little goofball is starting to come out in her. For no reason other than to strike a smile, she’ll start twirling in the middle of the bathroom, dancing to a song, pretend jumping, or doing the chicken dance.

She’s very much so into telling all of her dolls and stuffed animals to “Night Night” (said in a really creepy voice BTW) after covering them with a blanket (completely you see, she hasn’t quite grasped the concept of keeping the head uncovered yet.)

A daredevil is also coming out in her lately too. The climbing has begun – although thankgoodness not out of her crib.yet. – as well as throwing herself back on things without thinking that maybe there isn’t anything to catch her.

As I’ve mentioned before, we’ve been…potty introducing? I’m not sure I should be saying the actual term, because it’s still very laid back and slow…but I think we’re starting to get close to testing out trainers. The last four months have been full of potty introduction, and now we’re at the point where she uses the potty on average about 3-4 times a day, both number one and number two. Sometimes she prompts a potty trip by saying “Poop”, other times she asks for the potty after waking up, and most of the time we just try because she woke up dry, or has been dry for a long period of time. We have zero expectations of when she will actually be potty trained. I’m fully aware that she could regress, or just not be entirely ready for months, or over a year from now. For the moment, we’re taking it day by day, and it appears to be working, very well indeed.

She’s learning colours and starting to mimic counting and the alphabet. We’ve been amazed more than once when she’s come home from school pointing out a specific colour, or showing us an animal we didn’t know she knew.

She LOVES Thomas the Train. Oh, but she’s scared of real trains. Even though we tell her they are all Thomas, Gordon, Percy and Emily. No matter, she both loves and fears “Momas.” Oh, did I mention that we live near railroad tracks, and the night trains go through about four times a night? Makes for good nights.

She LOVES Elmo. Or, “Melmo”

As you can tell, her vocabulary is exploding beyond recognition. At her 18 month well check appointment, the doc asked how many words she had now, and The Hubs couldn’t even articulate it. 50ish? Who knows, it could be 100 at this point. To think, four months ago, I was worried about her not talking much.

We’re starting to get words put together, but not often. So far we’ve gotten a lot of “My Daddy, My Mommy, My milk” type of strings.

What else? Oh, growth! At her 18 month appointment, Ariadne was 25.4lbs (around 50% I believe) and 34.5inches (>98% – AKA off the charts) I can’t believe how tall she is.

Which has led to her starting to wear size 2T. She’s in a few pairs of 2T pants now, and the rest 18-24 (that are getting too short) and some 2T shirts, but mostly 18-24 month. Size 5 and 6 shoes depending on the style.

There’s more. There’s always so much more. I just don’t know how to compress every inch of awesomness into ONE post.

But I can tell you this. My kid is amazing. She’s awesome. The greatest person I know. This month, with all of it’s not so awesome sick moments, has made me realize just how much I love my life. Because of this little girl.

And…we’re officially starting to plan a birthday party. Her SECOND Birthday Party. What?!

What seems like eons ago (and was probably something like 6 months) my friend Mya asked me to be a pseudo labour coach and birth photographer for the birth of her second child. She had a long labour with her son and felt that it was most likely stalled by getting an early epidural. Being that I love anything birth/baby/photo related, I agreed in a heartbeat.

The plan, was to help Mya get to at least 6cm before getting an epidural (she had zero plans for a natural birth, just one that didn’t last quite as long as Wyatt’s) – and to, if nothing else, get pictures of the new little baby, being held up for the first time by the doctor.

With a completely insane, and ridiculous amount of pride, I can tell you, none of that and yet all of that, happened.

For weeks leading up to her due date, I was diligent about making sure my camera was charged, my plans were flexible and I was well rested. Although we had the above plan, we really didn’t have much more than that as far as expectations of how this would go. Due to not knowing if she and Scott would actually be comfortable with having someone in the room at birth, we were playing it by ear as to whether I would be in the room for the whole event, or just labour and then pop in as soon as the baby was born… I was just planning to go with the flow, and take everyone’s cues. And then it happened.

October 24th.

Something told me that the call was coming that night.

I went to bed early and had a rough time falling asleep. My phone rang at 11:45pm. Sure enough, it was Scott. As we were quickly making an action plan, I could hear Mya in the background yell “I’m getting the epidural!” and I responded back to her, even though I was talking to Scott “Of course you are!” Hah. It sounded like she had progressed fast, and in just about an hour, she had gone from first real contraction, to needing the epidural, stat. So instead of me heading to their house, they were heading straight to the hospital. Since things were bound to take a while in triage, I told Scott to call me when they got to the hospital; I would start heading over then.

I jumped in the shower.

My first thought as the hot water hit me was – “What are you doing? GET IN THE CAR” I had a strange feeling in my gut.

So I jumped out quickly, threw clothes on, shook The Hubs awake enough for him to ask “Mya?” and I ran out the door as fast as I could.

During the ten minute drive to the hospital, all I could feel was anxiety. If Mya was this far along, and needed the epidural right now, what use was I? How could I help? And the funniest one. Would she yell at me?!?! (LOL Mya)

Just as I was parking, Scott called again to let me know they had just arrived. I had no idea at the time, just how important it was that I didn’t wait until he called to leave my house.

It was 12:13am when I walked into the triage waiting area.

And poetically, all expectations and plans went out the window.

I spent a few minutes quickly cleaning off my memory card in my camera, and I am so thankful I did it then.

At about 12:30am, I heard a door open, huffing/puffing and the sound of a wheelchair. Then Mya yelling “Come on Lady!”

As we took a short elevator ride, between a contraction, Mya told me about how her water had just broken, and she was getting her epidural asap.

The mood changed as we exited the elevator. Mya hit a seemingly never ending contraction. With nurses flying around us to get things set up (the room was barely ready for us) I could tell that something was changing. Mya’s breathing was changing. One nurse asked “Are you pushing?” Mya replied “No, I don’t think so…. yes, YES I AM, where is my epidural?!” Moments later, she was checked, and it was confirmed. This baby was coming. Now.

A triumphant Mya beamed at us, with her fists in the air.
My feet were still stuck in place, at the door, by the bags. We hadn’t talked through this part. And I had no idea what to do.

Without thinking, I opened my bag, put my camera over my shoulder, and held out my hands to Mya while her husband applied counter pressure. We stayed like that for another contraction or two. I remember saying something to Mya about how she was having this baby, naturally. No epidural. It didn’t phase her, she was confident and strong.

A few minutes later, it was pushing time, and I stayed right there. I never asked if it was okay, I just hoped it was and held on to her hand tightly. It was strangely calm as Mya pushed, we counted, and the minutes ticked by.

At 12:56am the smallest little baby I had ever seen in person came into the world.

I slipped from Mya’s side, and did my best to try and capture it all.

I had these huge desires to give Mya a picture birth story. I wanted to capture every second of it. From hospital arrival, to birth. From the Scott’s hand in hers to Mya’s newly manicured toes. From belly to baby. Sometimes things don’t go the way we plan them.

Sometimes they go better.

I didn’t get every photograph I wanted to give to Mya. But instead, I was given a huge gift.

Because attending one of my best friend’s births is unlike anything I have ever experienced.

I followed the newly born beauty to the warming station and was filled with pride when the nurse asked me to announce her stats for Mom and Dad.

Since she didn’t have to deal with all of the epidural aftermath, Mya was ready to see her little girl right after the doc finished up.

She took her daughter in her arms and said “Jaye, this is Lane Amelia”

And boy is she amazing.

And so is her Mama.

After helping everyone get settled in post-partum, I slipped quietly back out the hospital doors. The way I came. Surrounded by darkness, feeling as if the world had just moved under my feet.

I drove home with a smile on my face, snuck back into bed as if I had never gotten out at all and woke up for work the next morning.

Such a whirlwind experience. An incredible experience that I am so blessed to have been a part of.

I never quite understood birth photographers. How they devote that amount of unknown time to their clients. But now I do. I could do that. In a heartbeat.

It was such an honour. Thank you so much, Mya and Scott. And little Lane.

A few months ago we realized that Ariadne was pretty taken with stickers. It probably started when the TraderJoes cashiers got some new “fall” stickers in and started giving her a bunch at every visit. Like she really needs an excuse to love that place more, right??

And then, after realizing how much she loved them, we decided that stickers would make fantastic Celebratory Potty Rewards. Maybe I’ll post about that some more later, but honestly I’m a little worried about jinxing our awesome luck with potty introduction…so that can wait. So for the last few months Ariadne has enjoyed receiving her Celebratory Potty Rewards.

As if there could be anything more awesome, eh?

But then, her Nana bought her JUMBO stickers.

And they promptly ended up all over our kitchen cabinets (don’t have a heart attack, we’re painting them soon anyways so I’m not worried about sticker gunk.)

I don’t even know how to begin to describe what an utter failure we usually are to family portraiture.

And I’m not talking about professional pictures, those, we can handle. Or maybe it’s just that our photographer can magically make us all look awesome and smiley and non-blinkey, all at the same time.

My money is on the latter.

But when it comes to at home family pictures, you know, just snapping a group shot here and there – so that we are all actually IN the picture…it’s a little more than difficult. Either Ariadne is writhing and yelling “dooooow” (down), I have creepy eyes or we’re all looking somewhere completely opposite from where we should be looking…I don’t think I need to pull up examples, just trust me.

I’ve been trying to make it more of an effort to at least get in the picture more often. It all started with the Allison Tate article earlier this month…because, it’s SO true. At least for me. I am the person behind the camera, not the one in the pictures. And I love that role. But it means I’m so rarely there in proof. Even though I know I’m present, will Ariadne remember that? Or will her early memories of me be of a big Canon stuck to my face, and my voice from behind it “Ariadne, look HERE, smile, CHEESY GRIN….COME ON….PLEASE?!?!” ?

And thus, I’ve decided to try and take more pictures of me and my daughter. And by default, of our little family. Because aside from the beeeeautiful pictures LaTricia takes of our family a few times a year, we don’t have many, just the three of us. Or more like, all three of us.

That’s how this Halloween turned into —

Blinkey

Turned….

BOOM. Practically the greatest picture of the two of us to ever be taken! Smiley and CHEESY Grin!

And

Maybe Ariadne could have worked it a little bit more happy in that one, and maybe there is a bit of glare on The Hubs’ glasses….but I’m calling it a success.

And a start.

Here’s to being a little bit more present in our pictures!

And in case you didn’t notice. My child was Pebbles for Halloween. Huge thanks to my amazing Mum for making her costume. A little more cuteness overload.

I guess you could say that I was waiting to post about this until it got a bit cooler….

Or you could just say, life got in the way.

When doesn’t it?

A few weeks ago we took a family trip to the pumpkin patch. It was hot, and Ariadne was getting over a bout of Roseola. Joy. But we made the best of it, and I think Ariadne had a pretty good time. She’s decided that she loves animals (especially baby animals) and also pumpkin picking.

This picture makes me smile. To think that just a year ago, our little family looked quite a bit different –

Okay, so The Hubs looks pretty much the same. I mean, he’s even wearing a freaking polo in both shots. And I guess I’m still wearing stripes (yes, I have a strange thing for stripes right now, and did last year too) but check out our KID. How does that happen in just one year?

I hope you’ll forgive me for my lack of being up to date on blogging. I promise I’ll get with the program sometime soon. We’ve been a little sidetracked over here. In the last three weeks, Ariadne has been sick three separate times, The Hubs and I once each, we’ve had quite a lot of family stuff going down and on top of all of that, I was anxiously waiting to get the “I’M IN LABOUR” phone call from my friend Mya. Who went into labour Wednesday night, and had a baby two hours later. Yes, I was there, yes I took lots of pictures and YES it was incredible. I’ve decided that I would like to be a Birth Photographer when I grow up.

It goes without saying, that no matter what kind of diapers you use you’re going to hit the occasional snafu. The following are just a handful of the things that can go wrong, and some simple ways to solve the problems, so you don’t go crazy!

Preventing diaper build up: Some people never have to deal with build up, and others deal with it often. Build up is exactly what it sounds like, a build up of stuff in your diapers. Think of your hair, how it can get build up from conditioner and product. When it’s got all that gunk in there, it doesn’t work the way it should. Build up can happen many ways; non-diaper safe detergent, diaper creams, lotions, unclean diapers. There are some things you can do to avoid build up:

Note that most diaper creams are NOT cloth diaper safe. What this means is that the cream stays on the diapers while you wash them, and ends up causing build up within the diapers, which can cause rashes, stink, repelling (aka leaks) and did I mention stink?!

The best way to handle diaper creams is to use a liner. I made our liners out of old cotton T-Shirts. Basically, I cut them in the shape of a diaper, and lay them in the diaper (between the diaper and baby’s skin) to create a barrier. Then, the liners can be washed separately from the diapers to keep build up from happening. You can also purchase flushable liners from many cloth diapering retailers.

In addition to being careful with diaper creams, it is also important to use a cloth diaper safe detergent. Although, I have to admit, I use that advice sparingly. We do not use a cloth diaper safe detergent, but we don’t have a problem with it, and many CD families use it (Original Tide – the powder kind) Along with detergent, always make sure you use enough water (we use a super wash), and rinse until there are no suds sitting in the machine.

Dealing with build up The best way to handle build up once it’s happened is to strip your diapers. Stripping is a form of deep cleaning. Spring cleaning for your diapers if you will. I recommend stripping once every few months, just to keep your diapers in tip top shape. There are many different options for stripping:

– The Dawn method, involves squirting a tiny bit of Dawn (the blue stuff) into a hot wash cycle and following with as many rinses as it takes to have clear water (no bubbles.) Dawn is really really good at deep cleaning, but it has the unfortunate problem of suds, which means you have to rinse incredibly well.

– The boil method, involves boiling your diapers to both clean out any build up and disinfect. You can also throw a few pots of boiling water in with your wash cycle to increase the heat of your wash and attempt to wash this way.

– The rinse method, is as simple as it sounds. You just rinse. And rinse. And rinse. And rinse. Until you see all of the suds (build up!) coming out of your diapers.

Google will prove to have even more options; including Bac-Out, OxyClean and more.

What’s that smell??? I hate to admit it, because it’s one of those negative things about cloth…but sometimes, they stink. And not because all diapers stink, but because they aren’t clean. Ack! It’s a big concern when cloth diapering. I mean, you want to make sure your dipes are CLEAN right?

Diapers can stink for reasons like build up above, but they can just as easily stink because they aren’t rinsed well, or cleaned well. The best way to handle smells is a good stripping and lots of washing. But even more than that, we use a bit of bleach regularly to make sure we’re killing all that bad yucky stuff.

StainsAs you would expect, poop stains. Especially that awesome breast milk poop. This is where living in Arizona comes in handy. The sun is without a doubt, the very best stain remover you will ever find. During the summer, we do our best to hang out diapers outside to line dry because they dry fast AND come in looking brand new. But, you don’t need the Arizona heat to do it. Simply laying your damp diapers (or any stained item) in front of a window will bleach those stains right out. It’s a miracle worker.

LeaksAs baby’s grow, they’re output also grows, which can cause leaking issues. With disposable diapers, as the child grows, you change the diaper size. Along with diaper sizes, diapers will also increase the capacity for holding liquid as the diaper size increases. Cloth doesn’t automatically make that switch for you, but it definitely offers up A TON of versatility for dealing with absorbency. As I’ve mentioned before, there are plenty of different insert/doubler options for increasing absorbency. We’ve changed our absorbency factors many times in the last 16 months. Currently, we’ve found that the best way of dealing with Toddler Super-Pee is a natural fiber insert/doubler combined with a microfiber insert.

There are most definitely other kinds of leaks though. Above, I discussed repelling leaks. These are due to build up, and basically mean that you diapers can’t hold any liquid, so instead of absorbing, the liquid gets pushed out. See above for help on that. Another suggestion for leak issues, is to change up your sizing. It sounds like an oxymoron, but just like disposable diapers, sometimes your cloth diapers will leak; not because they are too big, but because they are too tight. When in doubt, go up a size! As an alternative, as your child grows, you may notice that they trim up a bit. We’ve had a few instances where Ariadne grew up, and IN, so we had to start snapping her diapers in a bit tighter on the waist than previously done.

Even dealing with complications every now and then, we still swear by our cloth. In 16 months we’ve honestly dealt with less than a handful of issues. And the issues we did have, were quickly solved with a few internet searches. The internet is truly your friend when it comes to diapering! One of my favourite resources in the last year has been the DiaperSwappers website. There is a forum on that site that is just amazing when talking about cloth issues!

Well, that’s all for now folks! I’ll be finishing up a final Fluffy Butts post later this weekend!

As many people in the cloth diapering community will tell you, cloth is not a one size fits all item. There are so many options and brands, and they all work better/worse for different families. Diaper trials are a great way to test out the types and see what works best before committing. If you’re interested in a trial, check out your local cloth diaper/eco family store, as many offer this service; as well as many online retailers.

Initially we planned to do a trial, but it never ended up happening. Here’s why –

We were determined to start cloth from Day ONE. I’m very head strong, and figured that the easiest way to jump into cloth, and make sure it worked for us, was to pull the bandaid off. So, we went ahead and stocked up on a prefold system, and within moments of birth, Ariadne was in her first cloth diaper. It worked so well that we never looked back.

We chose prefolds because of their versatility. Prefolds are the “old school” type of cloth diapers; a rectangle of cotton held on by pins (or now, a Snappi) and wrapped in plastic pants (or covers, as we call them now.) To some, they are scary and complicated. But we never found them to be anything more than awesome! They fit from birth (Ariadne was 7lbs6oz at her smallest), although they were a bit bulky. As she grew, I loved them even more because they were amazingly trim for cloth diapers.

There are many ways to fold a prefold; in fact, there are lots of video tutorials online to show the options. We primarily used the Angel Fold and it worked very well for the breastfed baby poop.

Around three months we began to introduce a few pocket diapers (we had purchased some to test out) and ended up loving them as well. At the time we had a bumGenius 4.0 and a FuzziBunz One Size. The FuzziBunz quickly was put away as it really didn’t work well for us; despite the leg adjustment, we never could get a could fit. The bumGenius though, we loved. Over the next few months we somehow transitioned to primarily pocket diapers.

Our beloved prefolds were forgotten. And our stash looked more like this:

This new pocket stash allowed us to still wash every other day, as we’d been doing since Ariadne was born.

Pockets are a wonderful cloth diapering option for families who want something easy and similar to a disposable. The aplix pockets look and function just like a disposable (without actually being disposable 😉 ) They also have the added bonus of allowing a lot of customization Most pockets come with microfiber inserts, but you can purchase other types (more on those in another post) to increase your absorbency as needed. You can also stuff a pocket diaper with prefolds (which we do often as they are very absorbent.)

The one downfall to our pocket stash, was that over time we began to despise aplix. The aplix diapers would come out of the drier in a tangled mess, pulling at the cotton on the rest of the diapers. Eventually they even stopped sticking, and no amount of cleaning the velcro would make it any better.

So we switched it up, and bought all snaps. Our aplix pockets are sitting in a drawer waiting to be converted to snaps, someday.

The Hubs LOVES our pocket system. I do too, although I find myself still reach for prefolds more often than not. Now that we’re in the solid poop stage, we can use a Trifold on them, and it’s just sooo easy. And since we now have a super pee’er, the pocket diapers have to be double stuffed to contain Niagara Falls. Whereas a prefold works on it’s own, and keeps everything much trimmer.

Either way, both of our systems work amazingly well; and will last us through all of our future children. I haven’t really kept track, but I would estimate that we’ve spent somewhere around $700 on everything.

Two full systems, for less than we would have spent on a years worth of disposables.